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t ( nature * And therefore it may , afc < l doth ofteu happen , in commonwealths , that a subject may be put to death by the command of the sovereign power , and yet neither di > the other wrong : as when Jephtha caused his daughter to be sacrificed : in which , and the like cases , he that so doeth , had liberty to do the
action , for which he is nevertheless without injury put to death . And ^ the same holdeth also in a sovereign prince that putteth to death an innocent subject . For though the action be against the law of nature , as being contrary to equity , ( as was the killing of Uriah by David , ) yet
it was not an injury to Uriah , but to God . Not to Uriah , because the right to do what he pleased , was given him by Uriah himself : and yet to God , because David was God's subject , and prohibited all iniquity by the law of nature . "—Leviathan , Part II . Chap . xxi . p . 109 .
" There is therefore no other government in this life , neither of state nor religion , but temporal ; nor teaching of any doctrine lawful to any subject , which the governor both of the state and of the religion forbiddeth to be taught : and that governor must be one . " —Id . Part III . Ch . xxxix . p . 250 .
" My sixth paradox he calls-a rapper . A rapper , a swapper , and such like terms are his Lordship ' s elegancies . But let us see what this rapper is . 'Tis this , The civil laws are the rules of good and evil , just and unjust , honest and dishonest . Truly , I see no other rules they have . The Scriptures themselves were made
law to us here , by the authority of the commonwealth , and are , therefore , part of the law civil . If they were laws in their own nature , then were they laws over all the world , and men were obliged to obey them in America , as soon as they
should be shewn there ( though without a miracle ) by a friar . What is unjust but the transgression of a law ? Law therefore was before unjust . And the law was made known by sovereign power before it was a law . Therefore , sovereign power was antecedent both to law and
injustice . Who then made injust but sovereign kings or sovereign assemblies ? Where is now the wonder of this rapper , c That lawful kings make those things which they command just by commanding them , and those things which they forbid unjust by forbidding them ? ' Just and
unjust were surely made ; if the king made them not , who made them else ? for certainly the breach of a civil law is a sin against God . " An Answer to a Book published by Dr . Braznhall , late Bishop of Derry , called , The Catching qf
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the Leviathan , ( in Tracts of Mrj , ] Fhon ^ a Hobbes , of ^ laimsbury , 8 vo . Ij 68 ^ , ) pp . 112 , 113 .
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On the Right of the Magistrate to punish Unbelievers . 2 $ {*
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Sir , YOUR Correspondent Hylas coijvplains ( p . 211 ) of yourR&vieweifs using words in an " unphUqsophic&V * sense , but he surely falls into the sai ^ e
error in the very statement of his argument ( p . 209 ) y for he there speaks of religion being hisulted ^ thus introducing a . personification into a definition . His meaning is , that religious persons are insulted . They may be so ; but if they be , the Master of their
religion has taught them how to behave under insult ; and it is left to Hylas to say , whether the Master prescribes retaliation and revenge or patience and forgiveness . Drop the personification , and consider the question as simply one concerning the proper conduct of
the disciples of Christ when they are derided and injured on account of that discipleship , and it appears to me that all debate must be at an end amongst them that own the supreme moral and spiritual authority of ouf Lord .
The distinction which your Correspondent makes ( p . 210 ) between an opinion and the publication of an opinion is scarcely worthy of a writer of his acuteness . An opinion cannot be known until it is published $ and to
punish the publication as an overt act is in reality to punish the opinion . The Inquisition never caused men to suffer for opinions , until by some means or other the opinions became known .
I see not how H y las can shew on his principles that the primitive Quakers were truly persecuted , by which I mean that they were unjustly , vindictively and cruelly treated . They preached against the settlement of property in tithes , against the religious ordinances on which the moral feelings
of the people were thought to depend , against the institution of the ministry which had been always accounted essential to the well-being of the state * and against oaths by which the sancv tity of judicial proceedings was beliq ?)^ to be upheld : this preaching % f > p ( v ? fm public : and had the preach ^ rs > prevailed , an entire revolution wouW have been effected in the polity of Englaiitl
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vol . xv . 2 p
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 289, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/33/
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